Sony [E3 2017]

It should come to no surprise to absolutely anyone that Sony was my shining star of this years E3. We didn’t receive a new IP, which reasonably bummed a lot of people out, however this years presentation still exceeded my expectations. Not every year is going to be a big one, and it just gives us more to look forward to, to this years PlayStation Experience – which will be on December 9-10 this year!

During the PlayStation pre-show, we were introduced to PlayLink. A new way of play, but turning our smart phones into second-screen like controllers for PlayStation party games. Along with PlayLink, we were given two games to go along with this new feature; Hidden Agenda, and That’s You!Hidden Agenda comes from Supermassive Games; the creators of one of the best, or at least my favourite horror experiences pretty much ever. Hidden Agenda is a co-op thriller that puts you and your friends in the situation of solving a mystery; letting each of you make decisions to either help or sabotage your friends. That’s You! is a much lighter PlayLink game, and is a quiz-based party game that takes advantage of smart phone cameras, and gives you the opportunity to draw all over your friends.

Matterfall is a side-scrolling space platformer shooter that launches on August 16th this year. I don’t really have much to say outside of Matterfall incorporates a lot of things that I love in games, and I’m excited to see how speed runners take to this game, as it was created with them in mind.

Superhot is making its way to PSVR, and is said to offer the same experience as plays on the Oculus as well as the Vive. More and more games are being announced that are pushing my desperation for PSVR.

Undertale is one of those games that I always wanted to play, but never got around to even purchasing; that’s finally going to change as Undertale makes its way to PS4 and PS Vita. Undertale on PS4 is one of the first games of this E3 that I’ve added to my shameful pre-order list. The release on PS4 does come with a small collectors edition, so I’m keen to add it to my collection, and is said to release by the end of 2017.

I’m not going to try and pretend I wasn’t upset that we didn’t see more of The Last of Us Part II at PlayStation’s presentation, but we didn’t see more of Ellie and Joel for a very good reason; Naughty Dog want to focus on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and I’m glad they made that decision to do so. The Lost Legacy launches in August, which gives me enough time to go back and replay Uncharted, to then end this series on a high note. It’s fairly safe to assume that there will be more of The Last of Us Part II at the PlayStation Experience this December.

Very potentially my Game of the Year (at least second to NieR:Automata), Horizon: Zero Dawn deserves a title no less than “masterpiece”, and while Guerilla Games have mentioned they wanted to work on DLC for Horizon, their announcement of The Frozen Wilds came as a surprise. The continuation of the incredible world that Guerilla has created is exciting, and getting to see more of where Aloy goes next is something to look forward to.

In general I’m pretty over zombie games, but Days Gone continues to pique my interest. Coming from a very “Last of Us” vibe, Days Gone continues to impress by the sheer numbers of zombies it presents to us. The limitless zombie hoards we’ve seen so far looks promising in terms of non-stop action, but the story they’ve set up looks promising as well. What Days Gone has that The Last of Us doesn’t have though, is zombie bears. Zombie bears excites me, zombie dogs does less so, but regardless of what zombified enemies we’ll come across, I look forward to what Days Gone will be.

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about Monster Hunter World outside of “AAAHHH” and I really didn’t expect it. I love what Monster Hunter World has to give, and cannot wait to get my hands on it.

Shadow of the Colossus. The first game shown at this years E3 to bring me to tears. Shadow is getting a full remake on PS4, and I am beyond excited. All assets are being rebuilt, and we’ve been promised an updated way of gameplay; Shadow definitely doesn’t age well when it comes to its core mechanics of how the game plays, so this is an amazing opportunity for everyone who didn’t get the opportunity to play Shadow on PS2 and PS3, to play this masterpiece in a way that should age much better than it did initially.

After their silence since Until Dawn, Supermassive Games really gave us a lot this E3, this time with The Inpatient. A prequel to the aforementioned Until Dawn, The Inpatient is a VR prequel to one of my favourite horror games. Set 60 years prior to the events of Until Dawn, and will get to see what happened to the Sanatorium that so much of the game takes place in.

The more I see of God of War on PS4, the more excited I get. The departure from Greek mythology to Norse appeals to me deep in my core. God of War is expected to release in early 2018, and I cannot wait to own whatever ridiculous collectors edition we get with the game.

Detroit: Become Human is far from a game I’m looking forward to playing, but deserves an honorable mention because it is a game I will be picking up. In a future post I may get to why I dislike David Cage so much, but for now, know that this is a game I don’t want to be cynical about, I want it to be good, I want it to succeed, but David Cage knows how to set up an amazing, incredible story, only to ruin in it in every way.

How great does Spider-Man: Arkham look? Honestly Spider-Man is one of my most anticipated games for 2018, and I am so in love with the game we’ve been presented with so far. Combat is one of the most vital parts of a Spider-Man game, and this is a step up compared to anything we’ve seen before. The tease of Miles Morales at the end of the conference was the perfect farewell to this years PlayStation presentation.